Qualifying the ancient Greek saying Man is the measure,” Gordon Matta-Clark (19431978) asserted instead You are the measure,” conveying the defining theme in an oeuvre that would exert a powerful influence on fellow artists and architects. In artworks that combined minimalist, conceptual, and performative practices, Matta-Clark gave primary importance to the individual and considerations of everyday life. This comprehensive book incorporates important new information from the Matta-Clark archive, presenting a compelling reappraisal of the unique beauty and radical nature of Matta-Clark’s punnings, plans, performances, and interventions evident in the many media in which he worked: sculptural objects (most notably from building cuts), drawings, films, photographs, and documentary material. The son of Chilean Surrealist painter Roberto Matta and godson of Marcel Duchamp, Matta-Clark trained as an architect. He is renowned for his poignant use of urban landscapes, creating many site-specific works (often outside of a museum or gallery context) in New York and abroad. In this handsome book, distinguished scholars of contemporary art provide new insights into Matta-Clark’s work: the reception of his art during his lifetime; the impact of his socially engaged lifestyle; the production of his films; his photography, in particular his collages that have not been thoroughly explored; the creation and conservation of his building cut Splitting; and much more.

Gordon Matta-Clark: "You Are the Measure"

Arts & Photography

Individual Artists

The Whitney Museum of American Art

New York artist Terence Koh (b. China 1977) creates monochromatic environments, wherein minimalist and baroque aspects of his sensibility vie for dominance. From drifting-powder silencing rooms and constellations of cryptically linked objects to pristine, perfectly crafted containers that become coffins for shattered glass and mirrors, Koh’s work plays on the melancholic beauty and sublime transcendence of emptiness.This book, produced in close collaboration with the artist and presented with text in both English and German, is published to coincide with the first solo museum presentation of Koh’s work in the United States. The exhibition is a counterpart/reaction to an earlier show at the Kunsthalle Zurich (August-October 2006). Koh’s work for the Whitney exhibition uses light as his material, transforming the gallery space into a seductive yet inaccessible diorama and creating a psychological interaction that evokes desire and loss, pain and hope. Beyond documenting these ephemeral works, this innovative catalogue, featuring a new series of drawings created by Koh, functions as a complement to the two installations.Bilingual (English/German)

Terence Koh

MOMIN, Shamim M.

Ruf, Beatrix

Elvis’s Graceland, a freezer stuffed with food, a Gulf gasoline sign standing in a deserted rural landscapethese are only a few of the iconic images captured by the democratic camera” of photographer William Eggleston. Not only has he drawn upon images so telling of American culture, he has produced them with an intensity and balance of color that have helped elevate the entire field of color photography to a fine art, especially since his 1976 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art.
Drawing together Eggleston’s famous and lesser-known works, this lavishly illustrated catalogue is the first to examine both his photography and videos. Of particular relevance are his black-and-white images from the late 1950s and 1960s, which helped shape his color photography, as well as the relationship between his provocative video recordings of 1970s Memphis nightlife and his later work. Included are reproductions of newly restored prints, executed specifically for the exhibition. 
Filled with new and challenging contributions to scholarship and accompanying the first major U.S. survey of his work, this catalogue will prove the standard reference for Eggleston’s photographs for years to come.

William Eggleston: Democratic Camera, Photographs and Video, 1961-2008

Weski, Thomas

Sussman, Elisabeth

In 1926, Alexander Calder (18981976) moved from New York to Paris and began to use time and motion as "materials" for animating line and space. Calder’s years in Parisan understudied part of the artist’s careeris the focus of this marvelous publication.
A team of international scholars discusses Calder’s many innovations of this period, chief among them his abstract, motorized, and mobile works. They analyze the extended cast of Calder’s animated Circus, made in Paris between 1926 and 1931, and include previously unpublished photographs by Brassaï and Kertesz of Calder and this beloved performative sculpture. The essays critically explore the intellectual, cultural, and artistic milieu of Paris in the late 1920s and early 1930s and the contexts of Calder’s friendships with Miró, Mondrian, Duchamp, and Man Ray, among others. What emerges in this fascinating book is a nuanced and detailed understanding of how Calder’s distinctive career first took flight.

Alexander Calder: The Paris Years, 1926-1933

Simon, Joan

Léal, Brigitte

Biographies & Memoirs

Aesthetics and economic value have been intertwined for centuries, but the recent increase in investment in art suggests that the balance between the two may be changing. This intriguing book examines the factors that impact on today’s expanded art market and the relationship between contemporary art and economics.
The book’s three essays focus on works that engage speculative value, investigate the commercial aspects of exhibition and display, explore alternative and non-profit based economies, and shed light on the role of the collector. The works includedby such artists as Louise Lawler, Robert Morris, and Hans Haackedeal directly with the economic conditions of art’s production, reception, and circulation. There is also an interview with art advisor Diego Cortez, who offers a distinctive perspective on the evolution of the current art market and the business of mediating between collectors and dealers.

The Price of Everything . . .: Perspectives on the Art Market (Independent Study Program)

Braathen, Martin

Scott, Minnie

Sperlinger, Mike

Fabre, Stéphanie

Business of Art

Mark Bradford (b. 1961) constructs impressive, large-scale abstractions that merge the subject and substance of urban life, low and high culture, order and chaos. Constructed from the thickly layered street posters that cover the walls, windows, and lampposts of his native South Central Los Angeles, the large-scale abstractions explore the idea of the ruin and the processes of urban decay while recording the community's informal economic patterns. Carol E. Foster delves into Bradford's creative process and innovative use of found materials and reveals the influence of earlier artists, such as Piranesi and Leonardo, on his newest body of work. Focusing on Bradford's method of establishing a metaphoric relationship between the materials he employs and the images he creates, this book offers a perspective on a rising star of contemporary art.

Neither New nor Correct: New Work by Mark Bradford

Foster, Carter E.

This book accompanies the 2008 Biennial of the Whitney Museum of American Art, always a highly anticipated event in the art world. Inaugurated by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney in 1932, the Whitney’s biennial exhibitions have received acclaim, stirred controversy, and unfailingly fostered artistic innovation and diversity. The 2008 Biennial features some 85 artists and collectives working in many media and employing a variety of methods and practices.
The book is abundantly illustrated, with the vast majority of its 300 images presented in color. Whitney curators Henriette Huldisch and Shamim M. Momin provide insightful essays, as does a specially commissioned essay by Rebecca Solnit. In one section of the book, a short text accompanies reproductions of each artist’s work; other sections present documentation of the artists’ diverse methods and practices as represented in the Biennial exhibition. 
The Whitney Museum of American Art has vigorously supported the development of 20th- and 21st-century American art since its founding, and that commitment is reflected nowhere more clearly than in the sponsorship of the Biennial exhibition, the museum’s signature survey of contemporary art.
For more information on the Whitney Biennial 2008 and its participating artists, visit www.whitney.org.

Whitney Biennial 2008

Huldisch, Henriette

History & Criticism

American artist Glenn Ligon (b. 1960) is best known for his landmark body of text-based paintings, made since the late 1980s, which draw on the writings and speech of diverse figures including Jean Genet, Zora Neale Hurston, Jesse Jackson, and Richard Pryor. Throughout his career, Ligon has pursued an incisive exploration of American history, literature, and society across a body of work that builds critically on the legacies of modern painting and more recent conceptual art. His subject matter ranges widely from the Million Man March and the aftermath of slavery to 1970s coloring books and the photography of Robert Mapplethorpe—all treated within artworks that are both politically provocative and beautiful to behold.
Glenn Ligon: AMERICA, created in close collaboration with the artist, surveys twenty-five years of Ligon’s art, including paintings, sculptural installations, prints, and drawings. Essays examine his working methods in depth and situate his output within a broad cultural context, while lavish new photography highlights the formal subtlety of his art. This first comprehensive survey of Ligon’s career will greatly advance our appreciation of his pioneering oeuvre.

Glenn Ligon: AMERICA

Rothkopf, Scott

This timely and thought-provoking book features the works of thirteen contemporary artists who explore the concept of ethical cohabitation—negotiating differences within a shared environment—and the effects of ecological transformations on individuals, politics, and economics.In discerning essays, the authors discuss "junkspace" (structural design and the debris of the current over-development of built environments) and its role in the New York City landscape; how visual perspective enhances social relationships created within the environment of Manhattan's High Line Park; artists in the Internet age and the evolution of aural art, and how these modes of expression affect an individual's perception of time and space; and the tradition of artistic depictions of tragedy and devastation.

Undercurrents: Experimental Ecosystems in Recent Art

Edward Hopper (18821967) is recognized as one of the most well-known American artists of the 20th century. His distinctive style, combining subtle observations of the world with his imagination, has not only influenced other artists but also photographers, filmmakers, and popular culture. Although Hopper is primarily known for his oil paintings, including such iconic works as Nighthawks (1942) and Early Sunday Morning (1930), this important publication is the first comprehensive exploration of his drawings and working methods. In 1967, Hopper’s widow, Josephine Nivison Hopper, bequeathed her husband’s artistic estate to the Whitney Museum of American Art, including a fascinating collection of more than 2,500 drawings spanning his entire career. This group of works has never been the subject of in-depth study and many have never been reproduced before. Hopper kept these drawings for personal reference as he revisited various themes throughout his career. Carter E. Foster examines how Hopper used his drawings to develop his paintings, arguing that the artist’s work can only be fully understood after careful study of these preparatory sketches. Foster also argues that Hopper was, in many ways, a traditional draftsman who methodically developed schematic ideas into detailed studies to refine content. However, the steps toward this refinement are unique to Hopper and reveal how he turned the mundane into poetic images with universal appeal.

Hopper Drawing

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Books by The Whitney Museum of American Art